Rewinding 'Supernatural'

"Point of No Return"

There has been a lot of hype about the 100th episode of Supernatural, with various websites and magazines giving away spoilers and gossiping about just how big this episode was going to be. Even though I either knew or guessed a lot about what was going to happen, I was still impressed with how well all of it was done.

The episode mundanely opened with two guys complaining about their jobs in a bar, but one of these guys is no ordinary barfly, it’s Zachariah. Just as the human realizes that there is something different about his newfound friend, the bar is consumed with a loud humming, shaking, and a blindingly bright light. This is the result of a powerful angel speaking to Zachariah, who teleports him “back in the game”.

Meanwhile, Dean is packing his meager possessions along with a farewell letter into a box addressed to Bobby. Sam arrives, realizing that Dean wants to kill himself, and tries to convince him that “running away” is wrong and to keep faith, because “Bobby will figure something out.” Moments later, Castiel appears and teleports everybody to Bobby’s place. While Dean argues with everyone, Castiel finds himself teleported to a decimated forest. After fending off two violent angels with martial arts and their own angel-exorcising knives, Castiel notices some ground moving nearby and pulls a person out of the dirt.

This person is Adam, Sam and Dean’s half-brother, whom neither knew about until he mysteriously called them and asked for help last season. In that episode, he was an eager hunter-in-training who turned out to be a vessel for the creature that killed and ate him, but this Adam is different. Though he is similar to Dean in personality, this bitter teen wants nothing to do with the Winchesters or their plan to stop the apocalypse. He tells everyone how great Heaven is, how the angels warned him about them, and how he is the chosen one that will win the battle for Heaven. As Castiel and Bobby are left alone to guard Adam, Sam and Dean argue.

Dean insists that he’s “tired of fighting” and wants to give up, but as Sam continues to try to change his mind, Dean finally admits that he doesn’t trust Sam to do the right thing. Calling Sam “angry” and “self-righteous”, he says he wants to make sure that he is the only one who fights him when “Lucifer wears you to the prom”. When Castiel tries to stop Dean from leaving, he uses a supernatural trick to teleport Castiel away.

As Sam leaves Adam alone with Bobby, Adam dreams that he is in a park with Zachariah. Zac describes Sam and Dean as “psychotically, irrationally co-dependant on each other” and uses the promise of seeing his mother again to convince Adam to come with him.

Castiel catches up with Dean, who is trying to get the attention of a street-corner preacher/prophet. As Castiel shouts, “I gave everything up for you and this is what you give to me?” he beats Dean up into a bloody pulp.

Sam and Bobby realize that Adam has vanished, when Castiel appears, holding a wounded Dean, and says he knows where the angels have taken him. He leads them to the same place the angels once took Dean, which is also apparently an abandoned muffler shop.

Adam happily chews on hamburgers until Zachariah tells him he’s “not so much the chosen one, but the illegitimate half-brother of the guy that we do care about”. When Adam starts to see Zachariah’s demented, evil nature, the bad angel forces him to vomit blood. During all of this, Sam, Dean, and Castiel plan how to break in and save Adam. Despite the fact that there are supposed to be five angels protecting this place, we only see Castiel fight off three of them before all of them are transported to parts unknown, leaving Sam and Dean alone in the secret room with Zachariah, who’s torturing Adam.

Dean says that he will be Michael’s vessel multiple times, but as Michael is about to appear, Dean says he will only go through with it if Zachariah is “turned into charcoal”. This distracts Zac long enough for Dean to quickly stab him with Castiel’s angel-exorcising sword, but Michael is still coming. Though Sam and Dean quickly escape, the mystical door slams shut in front of Adam, leaving Sam and Dean with no way to get back to him.

The episode closed with Sam and Dean in the Impala, wondering about Castiel and Adam’s whereabouts. At least the two give each other some closure, with Sam telling Dean that he did the right thing and Dean telling Sam that he can now find faith in him. I, however, am disappointed by the preview for next week’s episode, which seems like a silly departure from the apocalypse plot.